Indian Fairy Tales · Chapter
XII: The Charmed Ring explained
This chapter discusses the folktale 'The Charmed Ring,' tracing its parallels across various cultures from India to England, including the familiar 'Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp.' It highlights the incident of the aiding animals and the m
What happens
This chapter discusses the folktale 'The Charmed Ring,' tracing its parallels across various cultures from India to England, including the familiar 'Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp.' It highlights the incident of the aiding animals and the magic ring motif, noting the widespread distribution of the story. The chapter also examines specific incidents such as the rat's-tail-up-nose to recover a ring from an ogress, arguing for an Indian origin and possible transmission via the Gipsies, as evidenced by an English variant from an English Gipsy.
Themes in this chapter
Cultural Transmission and Borrowing
The chapter traces the journey of the 'Charmed Ring' story from India to England, highlighting how folktales travel across cultures and are adapted, with the Gipsies as a possible medium of transmission.
Key passages
“It is impossible to imagine that incident—occurring in the same series of incidents—to have been invented more than once, and if that part of the story has been borrowed from India, there is no reason why the whole of it should not have arisen in India, and have been spread to the West.”
The unique incident of the rat's-tail-up-nose to retrieve a ring from an ogress is so specific that it could not have been independently invented in multiple cultures; thus, if this part was borrowed from India, the entire story likely originated there and spread westward.
This argument supports the theory of Indian origin for the folktale and its subsequent diffusion.